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Month: March 2017

This is some pretty cool hip hop from a 19 year old kid in Pennsylvania. Includes some freestyle and poems that apparently didn’t make it to other albums. He’s got 9 albums on Bandcamp.

The opening of the first track reminded me of MF DOOM, so that instantly sparked interest to see where Savan is gonna end up in a few years. Check it out, it’s a quick listen with some chill downtempo beats.

Every now and then instead of doing a full blown review of just an album, I’ll do an overall general review of an artist’s music, aesthetic, etc. “Artist Review” sounds wrong in a way, but I’m not sure what to call this type of post yet. We can figure it out along the way. In a future post, I’m going to explain what I’m looking for when receiving submissions for all type of posts.

Meet Golden Leap, an electronic musician from I don’t know where. He’s got some pretty cool beats and sounds going on, mostly techno and great visuals to compliment. The aesthetic of the Mother EP, released recently in January, is an interesting use of audio spectral analysis. The accompanying video uses these visuals to create an evolving terrain matching the sounds. I highly recommend checking it out.

The music itself is cool vibe of techno. Not too overwhelming with repetition and is generally balanced with use of space and equalization. The bass is controlled and the highs are open sounding. Almost like some of the songs on Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

Mother EP artwork

While I personally favor the Mother EP, theres some great tunes on SoundCloud to check out. “Thinner” is a great start for some synth heavy boss battle techno. “PS4LM 2E – A” is sick bass tune with great use of glitching. There’s some great swing on “The Needle” and its clarity and arrangement overrides the repetition often found in techno music. The last two songs mentioned are both from the Preludium Nuit EP.

I like the sound and look Golden Leap has because its not overbearing like some DJs are. The music focuses more on the sounds and energy than some type of musical branding. The productions are very well done, done correctly in my view. Not overly compressed like most modern techno is and you can hear all the sounds clearly at all volume levels. This is a sign of good production in arrangement and mixing/mastering. The visuals are complimentary too, and show signs of development. Overall, I think Golden Leap has a really cool vibe going on and hope to see some sort of live production involving the visuals seen in the Mother EP video.

It always seems weird when talking about ambient music. A lot of people I’ve spoken to find it to be boring, which to me is exactly what its suppose to be in some sense. Ambient music is background music and is a different type of listening experience. Some ambient music, like drone music, is a challenge of time. The repetitions and tones challenge the listener, rewarding them with visit to new mental states.

Ambient music can provide an enhanced experience within an environment and RedWater does this in Today’s Weather. Made mostly of soft tones and piano, the album is made of a single 20-minute piece which is a mixtape of material RedWater compiled in one night in 2016. Overall, it some of it makes me think what would have happened if Kid A era Radiohead collaborated with Nine Inch Nails on Ghosts I-IV.

For a 20-minute mixtape, it flows extremely well. Which needs to be done correctly with ambient music to be more effective. Some transitions are suddenly rough, while others are extremely smooth. This works though in creating the sense of uncertainty that accompanies the surprising movements within the piece. RedWater also makes use of reprising parts and rewarding listeners with familiarity.

Listening in 2017, during a snow storm here in New York, Today’s Weather is a warm embrace of soft tones with a few change ups to make sure you’re still awake. I recommend the album to people looking to hear ambient music as Brian Eno originally meant it to be. Or anyone in the Northeast United States looking for a soundtrack to the snowstorm we’re experience today, March 14, 2017.

The album is available on Bandcamp along with his next release due March 16th. There’s also nice visuals on his Instagram.

This is a pretty cool album by Gurudutt Perichetla. Some of it reminds me of video game music. It’s got that 80s synth that makes me want to play something with a nostalgic touch. Maybe WaveRunner for Nintendo 64? Great production and use of space too. Nightfade is short album of lush tones.

Definitely give it a listen. It’s a mixed palate of 80s synth music and there’s some old sounds that actually sound refreshing. You can not be a fan of 80s synths, but still like the instrumentation and sound of Nightfade.